Post navigation

Recorded with The Flaming Lips, Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz was surprise released free of cost following their 2015 MTV Video Music Awards finale performance of lead single “Dooo It!” on August 30th (watch here). To date there are no physical copies of the album: it’s only available as a stream on Miley’s website. Fans who have been asking for a proper issue are in luck though…well, sort of…

It won’t receive a traditional release but it will be available on vinyl at shows that Miley announced last night on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Miley revealed on the program, “I’m gonna go on tour later this year. Me and the Lips we’ve come together…” The Flaming Lips – as “Her Dead Petz” – will be Miley’s band on this tour. She also told Jimmy that Lips frontman Wayne Coyne was “back there drunk, falling on the floor, stealing stuff out of your dressing room…he’s in your dressing room now actually ramshacking the joint with a bunch of strippers. And Fetty Wap is actually also in there blowing off confetti canons up his butt.” Wayne’s instagram from backstage suggested otherwise (those veggies look yummy). Watch Miley explain it all at nbc.com, followed by the tour dates. Tickets go on sale October 7th at ticketmaster.

One thing Miley did not explain is whether this vinyl version will be the full 92 minute album. If that’s the case, it will have to be a triple LP (Correction: As a commenter on this post pointed out, it could probably be squeezed on to two records). Alternatively, perhaps it will include edited versions of the songs, or an abridged track sequence to squeeze it into a single album. At 23 tracks long – replete with guest appearances by Ariel Pink, Dennis Coyne of Stardeath and White Dwarfs, Mike Will Made-It, Sarah Barthel of Phantogram, Miley’s dad Billy Ray and Big Sean – the full Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz is a lot to take in. But that’s kind of the point (which cutting would defeat). Stay tuned for the vinyl details.

I’m actually looking forward to this tour. Hearing the Lips out of their usual element is always interesting and the show is undoubtedly going to be crazy. I feel like Wayne has always had a desire to be involved with a big pop star production; according to the Staring at Sound book, writing from the perspective of different pop stars was one of his go-to songwriting exercises around the Mystics era. This should be very interesting.

On second thought I think you may be right about the length. It’s pushing the limits, especially on the second LP, but could work.

Some other thoughts:
a) In 2003 the Lips were on 120 Minutes and Jim Shearer made a remark about them playing with Justin Timberlake (which they had done on Top of the Pops earlier that year) and their famous 90210 scene. He said something about how the more mainstream the Lips get, the weirder it is. That’s one way of looking at this: playful absurdity. Or at least it’s more absurd than coloring in the lines (so to speak) created by their career past. In other words, the notion of the Lips touring with Miley is more absurd than with Beck. (Not to single out Beck, he’s just an obvious example. Same goes for anybody else more conventionally thought of as one of their peers. There’s nothing absurd about them touring with Spiritualized and Tobacco (as they did in 2013). It’s exactly what’s expected. Miley on the other hand….less so…)
b) Wayne, from a 1995 interview: “The Boredoms playing to 100 Boredoms fans in a club is not subversive. The Boredoms playing to a big Lollapalooza crowd that came thinking watching Smashing Pumpkins will be radical, that’s subversive.”
c) Not that being subversive or turning Miley fans onto other types of music/ culture/ etc is their goal per se – they’re just having fun – but it could have that impact. “Fun” is the more operative word (than “subversive”). The Lips have many times, since the 90210 filming 20 years ago onwards, said they thought of doing the pop culture stuff they do as part of the reason they formed the band in the first place. For Wayne especially it seems like it’s all just a crazy adventure.
d) Miley and Wayne are genuine fans of each other. The Lips also seem to enjoy the absurdity of it all. That alone makes it more potentially interesting (and arguably more sincere, or at least less calculated) than if they just did what the consensus of Lips fans expected of them, for that sake.
e) Wayne’s magic power of the last 20 years is that he doesn’t get embarrassed.
f) Now’s a nice time to rewatch Timberlake miming the bass in a dolphin costume on that TOTP 2003 episode http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiyhqNE8fV4. Wayne hung out a few times with JT over the years after this as well, and was featured on Timberlake’s website a few years ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL45VXIhILg
g) Madonna’s music was a direct influence on the Yoshimi album.
h) “Karen Don’t Be Sad” from the Dead Petz album started life many years ago as a Yoshimi-era Lips out-take.
i) The Lips live show is known for the spectacle of it all. Imagine that with Miley’s budget (and similar enthusiasm for visuals, etc…
k) See pictures below:

Hi Future Heart, just a question (I don’t know where to ask it): what happened to the slow-nerve-action board? And to the youtube channel? It seems that all the videos (the incredible full-lenght live collection!) disappeared, and so did the message board…do you know what happened? I used to write there…
Thank you